Several years ago I went to my first major scrapbooking expo. My girlfriend and I bought tickets from our local scrapbooking store
Sweet Sentiments Scrapbooking to hop on the bus with the best bunch of women you could ever want to travel with. The ride to Kitchener flew by as we created cards to donate to charity upon arrival. The entire group was alive with the excitement of what might be at the show.
When we arrived at the arena we were greeted at the door by some fabulous organisers and Lisa Sales Furtney, founder of Scrapfest Canada. She helped us all get oriented as to where the marketplace was and where to go for classes.
When we entered the marketplace we were stunned by the amazing array of vendors and products. Every booth was decorated and displaying the latest products that we poor crafters in Belleville had only seen in our copy of
Canadian Scrapbooker. We were able to try new tools and different types of media. We were hooked. In hindsight we should have purchased our boatloads of paper after we had made our rounds of the marketplace and finished our classes as scrapbook paper weighs allot after several hours of lugging it.
It seems nearly every booth had a make and take project that we could complete for free. So many in fact that we had to choose just our favourites to complete or we would have missed our class.
One of the absolute highlights for me was having the opportunity to take a class with
Vicki Boutin. She is such a talented papercrafter and I have been a huge fan of her work for several years. Having an opportunity to spend time discussing scrapbooking with her was like sitting at the feet of Michelangelo as he painted the Sistine Chapel. It was inspiring beyond anything I had done before and really drove my interest in scrapbooking.
Scrapfest became our annual pilgrimage. Without even having to talk about it we automatically cleared our calendars to be there each year. After the first year we began driving to Scrapfest and the journey became part of the adventure. Scrapfest then came to Oshawa and we revelled in having yet another day to set aside to explore the pastime that had become such a big part of our lives.
I still have my pink Scrapfest Shirt from that first year. Its faded and a bit unsightly but I will never part with it. Each time I bring it out I am flooded with the happy memories and sometimes nearly scandalous escapades Rebecca and I had at Scrapfest. I have not been back to Scrapfest since the Oshawa Scrapfest in 2011. Rebecca was killed in an accident a couple weeks after the event. Each year I watch the updates flood in about Scrapfest and I long to be there. To be able to tap into some of that vast creative energy that flows there. This year may be my year....
Lisa Sales Furtney was wonderful enough to offer two sets of VIP Marketplace Tickets for the April 2015 Show in Kitchener, Ontario. So, four lucky My Grandma's Teacups fans are going to be going to
SCRAPFEST.
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